Tell us a story, Etgar Keret. (Yanai Yechiel)

By Adi Dvir

More often than not, profound thought about a subject begins with a glance at its seemingly most superficial aspect, its name. For this there is no better companion than that symbol of all-enduring lingual authority: the Oxford English Dictionary.

culture

Pronunciation:/ˈkʌltʃə/

noun

[mass noun]

• 1 the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively
• 2 the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society

In other words, our “culture” would appear to suffer from a type of split personality best demonstrated by that age-old tale of a prince dressing in rags to go cavorting among the commoners. Read more

By Rachel Rowland

You know that summer is nearly here when the number of exciting events, parties and festivals begin to grow at an exponential rate. Yes, it’s time to take advantage of the amazing weather and leave the house to explore!

What’s cooking this week in Israel? Take a look. And ready your pens to mark those calendars!
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Amira Zeyan, Israel

Artists and photographers from more than 20 countries have participated in Bezalel Academy’s “Interspace” photographic conversation on Facebook. This unique social media-art conversation culminated in a four-day “Interspace marathon and exhibition” – online and at Bezalel – last week.

Interspace, the brainchild of two Israeli Art students studying at the Bezalel Academy, is the first of its kind – an image-based dialogue marathon driven by social media and running between artists from around the world. Read more

A culture's literature reflects the collective unconscious of its people.

By Adi Dvir

Every man’s memory is his private literature.  - Aldous Huxley

“Literature, huh? Interesting.”

This is what most people say when I tell them I am a graduate student of said field. The word “interesting” here is not self-explanatory. It comes with a slight squinting of the eyes, a marked downturn of the mouth’s corners, a gentle lifting of the brows, all of which add, “but superfluous.”

All of you, who are reading this blog, probably don’t agree (otherwise why would you be here, studiously perusing these words in an attempt to gain insight into Israeli art?) but you may also be saying to yourself, with an internalized wink, that this activity is more, say, extracurricular, than, for example, the study of Applied Engineering.

And indeed, what are the benefits of studying literature? Or, more specifically, for our aims, what can literature teach us about a culture? A people? Read more